I saw a pre war model 70 today, its a 30.06.
It has been re stocked and I was looking at it as an action. My question Is about 2 holes on the rear side of the reciever for mounting a reciever sight. Are these hole drilled and tapped at the factory ? My 1953 Featherweight has them but I don't know much about the pre war actions except the custom smiths seem to love them.
Oh yea I almost forgot, It has been drilled and tapped for the weaver bases it still has this does'nt bother me much cause I would mount a scope on it anyway, I would probably spend a buck or 2 having a set of redifeld styles made, Price is 450.00 for the rifle, Any help would be apreciated, does the price seem fair ? ...tj3006

I paid the same for an all original. It was beat up, only thing I wanted was the action. The action was cherry though, no extra holes.

Thats probably fair price, maybe a little less for a not origianl stock useless its done very nice.

I would buy it!!!!

The two holes on the side of the receiver are factory standard. Make sure the bolt handle hasn't been messed with to allow scope clearance. Sometimes I've seen them scalloped on the top of the handle (like a post-wr M70), that is a deal killer for me. I really like the shape of the pre-war bolts.

$450 is probably a fair price, but keep in mind a pre-war will cost more than a post-war to finish into a custom rifle. The safety and scope mounts are the biggest expense.

I would buy it and shoot a period apeture sight.

I would pull off the scope bases if you can and see if the holes are staight and not buggered or plugged and redone or something.

Thomas,

Buy it.

Roland

I agree with GSP7. Remove the scope bases to see if there are any "extra" holes. There were some weird scope mounts back then that required holes straddling the centerline. It is not uncommon to find pre-war M70's with four holes in the rear bridge. That may not be a deal-killer, but it is negotiating leverage.
Here is an example of a modified bolt handle like ForrestB mentioned: M70 Super Grade.

Very few pre war or pre 54 M-70s are collectors these days, they almost have to be new..the rest are disireable shooters...

Any m-70 action is worth $400 to $450 unless its been ruined....yours is set up for a peep and a scope, the barrel is worth $50 to $100..You can't go wrong...

I would bet if its drilled and tapped for Weavers then it will fit redfield, Buehler, Leupold, Talley and most any base..and if not then that isn't all that big a problem, all of them make a blank base.